Microsoft's mixed messaging Windows 7 users to get GWX upgrade nag screens again... and also DirectX 12. WTF, MSFT?

Before we get started, I just want to point out that Microsoft announced both of these Windows 7 developments on the same day.

First, from The Inquirer:

THE NAGS are back, and we're not talking about the invasion of the killer horses that we dreamt about after a particularly cheeky late-night cheeseboard.

Microsoft has confirmed that starting next month, Windows 7 users will start to see pop-ups warning them that their beloved operating system is reaching end of life on 14th January 2020.

This will send shudders of resigned recognition to all those who lived through the saga of nag screens that plagued Windows 7 and 8.x users when Windows 10 was rolled out as a free upgrade and made it very difficult to opt out.

The good news is that these "courtesy reminders" contain some learnings gained from that whole debacle, with a promise that this time you'll see far fewer, and that there'll be a definite "don't remind me again" checkbox to get rid of them.

And then, from The Verge:

Microsoft is making a very surprising addition to Windows 7 this week, with the support of DirectX 12 for the nearly 10-year-old operating system. While Windows 7 support will end in less than a year and Microsoft will start sending notifications to PCs next month, the company is allowing some game developers to implement DirectX 12. The first game to appear with DirectX 12 support on Windows 7 is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

Microsoft heard feedback from Blizzard that features like multi-threading in DirectX 12 were bringing substantial framerate improvements to World of Warcraft on Windows 10. Blizzard wanted these same features on Windows 7, presumably because it still has a large base of players on this older OS. Microsoft originally launched DirectX 12 as part of Windows 10, and has not made it available for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 users.

This is just baffling, even for Microsoft. I can see bringing the new Chromium/Edge browser to Windows 7; Microsoft have a significant number of large-volume license-holders to whom they're trying to sell additional years of Windows 7 support ($300 USD per PC for three years, and only if you have a volume license), so adding new functionality to the platform for them makes a certain amount of sense. But WoW players? In a year in which they're trying desperately to convert individual Windows 7 users into Windows 10 Home (or Pro) users, for Microsoft to be giving those same individual W7 users additional reasons not to switch makes no obvious sense.

Oh, and these same PC gamers, who've mostly rejected both of Microsoft's ecosystems, i.e. Windows 10 and XBox Live? Microsoft has more goodies in the bag for them, too, even if they don't play WoW.

Vulkan takes a step forwards

Kronos Group's new, cross-platform API has had something of an up-and-down week. It was just days ago that they announced that multi-GPU support for Windows would be restricted to Windows 10 only, but not restricted on Linux, MacOS, or other platforms, a decision which had people scratching their heads. Today, though, comes the news that at least one high-profile game has decided to port their game from DirectX to to Vulkan, rather than move to DirectX 12.

From PCGamesN:

In a forum post over on the programming forums for Star Citizen, director of graphics engineering Ali Brown has announced that Star Citizen will now use Khronos’ Vulkan API, rather than switching to the latest edition of DirectX. While the development team had previously stated their desire to support DX12, Vulkan is “a more logical rendering API” which will benefit all users.

One of the main reasons Brown gives for not supporting DX12 is that “it doesn't force our users to upgrade to Windows 10” and means that Star Citizen can be developed with “a single graphics API that could be used on all Windows 7, 8, 10 & Linux.” As Star Citizen is targeted to be a multiplatform PC title, using Vulkan makes a lot more sense than having to spend a large amount of time reworking the game just to work on Linux.

[...]

According to Brown, DX12 “would only be considered if we found it gave us a specific and substantial advantage over Vulkan,” and even then the APIs “aren't that different.” If anything is subject to change, you can be certain the boffins over at Cloud Imperium Games will let their legion of pilots know.

This is pretty much exactly what Kronos Group are hoping for. Game development, generally, has been trending in a cross-platform direction, with an increasing number of new games showing up on every platform, rather than being restricted to just one. A cross-platform API should make that easier, since the entire game doesn't need to be reworked nearly as extensively for each new port. At least, that's the theory.

That was also the theory behind OpenGL, though, and OpenGL never did manage to grow into an effective competitor for DirectX on Windows... which is the same as saying that it never really penetrated the PC gaming space. Even the Unity engine supports both DirectX and OpenGL: DirectX for PC and XBox, and OpenGL for everyone else. In order to really compete in PC Gaming, Vulkan will need to be seen as preferable to DirectX 12 for at least some PC releases.

The list of games with Vulkan support is still quite short, with id's Doom being the highest-profile example so far, so every high-profile new release that adopts the API contributes to its credibility. The Star Citizen announcement is exactly the kind of good PR that Vulkan needs, coming at a time when they can really use it, and their extensive communication throughout the development process should make an excellent showcase for the ease with which the switch to Vulkan is accomplished... or an excellent cautionary tale, if it goes badly. So, you know, no pressure.

It's still very early days for both Vulkan and DirectX 12, and we'll see which one takes flight more quickly. DirectX 12's success is likely to be directly tied to Windows 10's rate of adoption, something which seems to have stalled; it remains to be seen whether Kronos Group can capitalize on that opportunity.

Vulkan takes a step backwards

Speaking of self-inflicted injuries...

I've blogged before about Vulkan, the promising new cross-platform API which the Kronos Group is pitting against Microsoft's latest iteration of Direct X. Providing the same low-level API benefits as DX12, but usable on every platform, including Linux, MacOS, Android, SteamOS, and PS4/Orbis (all of which are Linux-based or Unix-like environments), Vulkan's portability gave it a critical competitive edge that DX12 couldn't match, with DirectX12 is, naturally, being restricted to Windows 10.

The latest announcement from the Kronos Group, however, is throwing a little cold water on that prospect. It turns out that Vulkan's multi-GPU support might be restricted to Windows 10 and Linux, while being unavailable on the Windows version that half of PC users are actually, you know, using.

From HotHardware.com:

Today we are hearing that the low-level Vulkan API will not support multiple GPUs on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. The Dark Side Of Gaming came across the disappointing bit of news when rummaging through Kronos Group’s slides from GDC 2017. One slide entitled “Vulkan Multi-GPU and Virtual Reality Support” clearly points out that “WDDM must be in ‘linked display adapter’ mode”, with WDDM referring to the Windows Display Driver Model.

Although it might not seem like a big deal from reading that line, the linked display adapter mode is exclusive to WDDM 2.0. And as you are probably coming to realize at this point, WDDM 2.0 is a feature that is only natively supported by Windows 10. In other words, if you want to use NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFire natively with Vulkan, you’re going to have to be running Windows 10.

Here’s one more wrinkle in this story; it appears that Linux won’t have the multi-GPU limitation when it comes to Vulkan (and it obviously doesn’t support WDDM) which makes us wonder why exactly Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are being shown the door...

It's more than a little head-scratching. Vulkan competes directly with DirectX 12, and its portability is one of its most attractive features, but limiting parts of its feature set to Windows 10 make it less attractive as an option. After all, if your graphics engine is going to need Windows 10 to take full advantage of all the available graphics options, anyway, then why not build it around the API that comes with Microsoft's latest OS? Especially since many graphics engines are already built around earlier versions of DirectX? Other versions of Vulkan don't have this limitation, so it's not intrinsic to the API. What's the reasoning behind this?

Multi-GPU support isn't needed for Android devices, and it still needs to be supported separately by the game your'e playing, which means that this limitation may not hurt Vulkan's adoption all that much, but still.... it feels like a step away from the true cross-compatibility that's supposed to be Vulkan's reason for being. I just don't understand why the Kronos Group seems to be dissing Windows 7 & 8 this way, either, since users of those Windows versions are still more than half the PC OS market. It's like AMD's inexplicable recently loyalty to Windows 10 with their Ryzen line. Where's the benefit?

Hopefully, this is just a small hiccough, and Kronos Group can make Vulkan into a true competitor to Direct X 12, something which can only benefit consumers, but I have to say, I'm a little less hopeful about that prospect now, than I was a week ago.

Intel adds support for Vulkan graphics API on Windows

I've blogged about Vulkan before. An open-source, cross-platform Application Program Interface, or API, it had all the advantages of its predecessor, OpenGL, with the same low-level power that Windows 10-exclusive DirectX® 12 offers, was receiving strong support from AMD and Valve, and was already being baked into Unreal Engine 4, which Nintendo is recently promoting as the tool for Switch third party development. There really was only one thing holding it back: a lack of support from Intel, who arguably make the best-performing CPUs for PC gaming.

That's now changed.

From WindowsCentral:

Intel has officially added support (via CIO) for the Vulkan™ graphics API for its most recent Core chips on Windows 10. While Vulkan is already supported on graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA, the integrated graphics in Intel's Kaby Lake and Skylake chips can now run games and applications written with the API as well.

[...] Here's how Intel describes Vulkan in its documentation:

Vulkan* targets high performing real-time 3D graphics applications, like games, while giving low-overhead hardware control over GPU acceleration to developers. Vulkan* utilizes many open-source libraries and utilities, and promises great performance and predictability, while paving the way to better equip games to handle virtual reality or 4k HDR.

Vulkan support was previously available on Intel chips in beta form, but the official release signals that support is ready for primetime and should be relatively stable. Don't expect your integrated graphics to suddenly compete with high-end cards from NVIDIA and AMD, but Vulkan support should offer some solid performance on modest settings for games that support it. Perhaps more intriguing are the possibilities this opens up for Vulkan-coded apps that could run on the low-cost Windows Holographic VR headsets coming from Microsoft's hardware partners later this year.

Vulkan is a direct competitor for DirectX 12, and should be stiff competition: it's available on Windows 7, which DX12 isn't, and also on Nintendo's Switch, Sony's PS4, and on Android and iOS devices which don't run Windows 10, either. With Intel officially supporting the API, it may have just received the additional push it needs to become the API for the current generation of gaming graphics engines. Everyone is on board with Vulkan... much to the chagrin of Microsoft, who have long been used to DirectX being the de facto standard for gaming.

Not only does this loosen Windows 10's grip on gaming, it might even loosen Windows' grip on gaming, generally, allowing more games to be developed more easily for Linux and MacOS, both of which are Unix-like environments (as is PS4's Orbis). We might even see a renewed push for SteamOS (also a Unix-like OS) from Valve. And it could ensure that Microsoft continue to be shut out of the mobile market, leaving mobile game developers, in particular, no reason at all to develop for engines that rely on Microsoft's proprietary API. Why would they, when an open-source, easily-portable alternative is available?

In fact, the only part of this development that holds zero interest for me is the potential effect on Windows 10-branded VR headset development, simply because I'm not convinced that PSVR headsets are going to perform any better in the market than existing offerings from Oculus and HTC. As a PC gamer, I'd love to have a choice of platforms available beyond the choice of Windows versions; if Vulkan really takes off, that could actually happen, in exactly the way that it's refused to happen until now.

Stay tuned...

Quantum Break is coming to Steam...and Windows 7

From Hayden Dingman at PC World:

Quantum Break, Remedy’s time-traveling action game and/or lengthy TV show, is coming to Steam.

It’s a pretty straightforward story, insofar as the facts are concerned. You’ll be able to buy it there starting September 14, and unlike the Windows Store version, the Steam version will run on any PC with Windows 7 (64 bit) or higher—no restriction to Windows 10 or DirectX 12, in other words.

Them’s the facts. But Quantum Break’s movement to Steam is quite a bit more interesting because of the implications.

Microsoft's bringing pretty much all of its “Xbox exclusive” games (barring a future announcement about Halo) to Windows 10 PCs at this point, under an initiative called Xbox Play Anywhere. And no doubt, these games will end up in the Windows Store. It’s Microsoft-owned. It allows them almost console-esque control over games that wind up on the PC. And the universal Windows app design is what enables the underlying Play Anywhere features in the first place.

Will they hit Steam too though? Earlier in the year Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said the company would eventually “ship games on Steam again,” but I still had my doubts it would occur for top-tier games—until Quantum Break. Now, it seems more likely.

Dingman goes on to list a few caveats:

• Quantum Break was technically just an Xbox “exclusive” that made it to PC, not an actual Play Anywhere title; 
• Remedy is not owned by Microsoft, so a Steam release could have been negotiated as part of Quantum Break’s (timed) exclusivity;
• Microsoft still might keep first-party games like Forza Horizon 3 or Gears of War 4 off Steam, for branding reasons.

He also notes that PC sales of games like Quantum Break are bound to be better on Steam than the Windows Store, and also that Quantum Break suffered from performance issues that stemmed directly from the Universal Windows Platform:

Hopefully the unfettered Steam version runs better.

And hopefully it’s not the last “Xbox Exclusive” to hit Steam. We’ll keep you updated.

With Tim Sweeney accusing Microsoft of plotting to kill Steam completely, it's important to bear in mind just delicate a dance this is for Microsoft, and for their partners in PC gaming. With Universal Windows Apps performing worse than Steam releases in every case, so far, and Steam's customers remaining very loyal to Valve, who promoted PC gaming for years when Microsoft seemingly weren't interested, it'll be interesting to see how many of those first-party titles do end up on Steam, and how many of their other "exclusive" titles actually stay exclusive, rather than chasing the money to PC gaming's biggest sales market. It's also interesting that Quantum Break's Steam release includes both Windows 7 and Windows 10 versions, a clear recognition of the number of PC Gamers who didn't switch operating systems.

UPDATE:
It turns out that this is even more interesting than I'd first thought.

From PC Invasion:

Those who purchased Quantum Break through the Windows 10 store are “unlikely” to see another patch for the game, according to Remedy’s Head of Communications Thomas Puha. Puha was replying on twitter to players still unhappy with the game’s performance, even after a recent July patch, stating: “Sorry to hear you are having problems. Its unlikely we release another Win10 patch”.

It was announced yesterday that Quantum Break would be getting a Windows 7-compatible, DirectX 11 Steam release in mid-September. That move now appears to mark an end to support for the Windows 10, DirectX 12 version.

So, not only is Quantum Break coming to Windows7/DX11 and Steam, in a version that will outperform the Windows10/DX12 version, but they're not even going to try to fix the DX12 version anymore. Did I mention that the Steam release is $20 cheaper than the full-retail Windows Store release?

No word yet on whether Quantum Break's Windows Store customers will get free Steam keys, to compensate for the Windows Store version being a broken mess (Puha: “we dont make those business decisions”), but considering that Quantum Break was a very high-profile flop for Windows' new Store, I'd say that Microsoft's evil plan (according to Tim Sweeney, anyway) to steal Steam's customers away is off to a rough start, to put it mildly.